One of the embodiments of this invention is related to User Interactive/Interface (UI) Technology or Network Computing. Computer networking is the engineering discipline concerned with communication between computer systems or devices.
Network topology is the study of the arrangement or mapping of the elements (links, nodes, etc.) of a network, especially the physical and logical interconnections between nodes.
A local area network (LAN) is one example of a network that exhibits both a physical topology and a logical topology. Any given node in the LAN will have one or more links to one or more other nodes in the network, and the mapping of these links and nodes onto a graph results in a geometrical shape that determines the physical topology of the network. Likewise, the mapping of the flow of data between the nodes in the network determines the logical topology of the network. It is important to note that the physical and logical topologies might be identical in any particular network but they also may be different.
Topology UI views have navigation issues when they do not scale nicely within one view. This problem often happens when there are more than a few dozen nodes. To help with this problem, a broader secondary overview topology UI is frequently shown adjacent to the primary display area to compensate for this. However, this solution is less than ideal and not very seamless, since the broader view itself takes up another screen area, and it's not directly part of the primary view, i.e., it is off to the side in basically another dedicated view area taking up an area removed from the primary view area.